Australian tax office employees with 4.51pm finish time refuse to work another nine minutes

Workers at Australia’s tax office have refused to work an extra nine minutes a day and insisted they be allowed to continue with their finishing time of 4.51pm.

The department’s managers attempted to change the finishing time to “boost productivity” but the push was dropped after it prompted an angry backlash among staff.

The official work  day at the tax office is from 8.30am to 4.51pm with a one-hour lunch break at 12.30pm. 

According to an internal briefing to staff about workplace agreement negotiations, staff responded angrily to a proposal to change the working day.

ATO document

“Of all the changes proposed in the enterprise agreement (EA) package, this was the one you told us you disliked the most,” said the briefing, obtained under freedom of information laws by ABC News. “It was clear from your feedback that this had to go.”

However, staff insisted that they work long hours and described the suggestion that they leave for home en masse at 4.51pm as “ludicrous”.

“Our members are working longer hours than ever, including unpaid overtime, because of over 4,000 jobs that have been slashed from the [tax office] in recent years,” said Nadine Flood,  a union secretary.

Staff at the tax office have long finished work at 4.51pm, which brings their working week to 36 hours and 45 mins, rather than the standard 37.5 hours. Two other government agencies have similar hours.

The Community and Public Sector Union, which represents government workers, said staff were not offered a specific pay rise in return for the additional nine minutes a day, which would amount to about five work days a year.

Instead, staff were offered an overall 0.8 per cent pay rise – a proposal rejected as “measly” by the union.         

“This [the finishing time] was never the only issue for our members, though they were understandably upset at a cut to their hourly pay rate via changing working hours,” Ms Flood said.

Management said the current work hours were not consistent with “general community expectations and standards”. It said senior tax officials were some of the highest-paid members of the civil service but were entitled to “the shortest working day”.

However, the tax office admitted that many of its employees work “more than the standard day”.

"An increase to the working day of nine minutes per person per day can generate significant productivity - which could be used to justify other increases in entitlements, such as a higher pay rise,” according to the tax office documents.

The tax office is not the only agency in Australia with unusual work hours.

In the Northern Territory, the standard work day for all public servants is 8am to 4.21pm.

Traditionally, federal public servants have been required to work about 36.75 to 37.5 hours a week, slightly less than the national standard  of 38 hours.

The government attempted in 2015 to lift the average week to 38 hours and to change the standard work day  - outside of which staff can receive penalty rates - from 8.00am to 6.30pm to 7.00am to 7.00pm. But the workplace tribunal rejected the push, saying the current system had worked successfully for almost a century.